Beach ride 2012

5/28/2012 By: C. Kent, aka (Superman) After the ride we had on Saturday I was looking forward to a nice easy ride to the beach on SART today. Yorba Linda to Huntington is only about 26 miles and with a small trip to the pier the round trip is less than 60 miles. I was just a little disappointed when I thought that just three of us might be going to make the ride but by Sunday it looked like we would at least have 7 riders. Coyote and Nike were going to meet us at the Ice Castle and Von Richthofen and his son Levi were going to ride with me and Highlander would be bringing Tax man. Then I discovered that Marshall would be joining us making it 8 riders. At the last minute Highlander and a mechanical issue and we were down one rider and I had a car full with the addition of Tax Man. Then I got a call from Vortex and Surgeon saying they would meet us at the castle. By the time we were ready to leave the Ice Castle we were 9 strong.

We headed for the first river crossing and headed over to the south side of the river on the old bridge. What surprised me was how quickly we were moving west in a pace line almost from the start. I pulled for a long time before Vortex took over and pulled us all the way to the park across from the Honda Center. We all took a bit of a break there and hydrated a bit before heading off again to cross over to the north side of the river bed and down past the Big A.

We took turns at the front of the pace line and moved down to the Golf Course and finally got down to the bridge crossing back over to the south side of the river bed again. Coyote, Surgeon and finally Levi took turns pulling us west all the way to the soccer field and the little park and short climb before Vortex moved forward and took the lead again. I asked him to hold the pace down so I could get ahead of the group to catch them crossing the last bridge over to the north side before we got t the beach.

Once we made the last turn north we rode out onto the board walk and slowly cruised towards the pier. The problem with riding down on the boardwalk is we have to be very careful because people aren’t paying much attention to where they are going and they can step right out in front of you. And that is just what happened when a little kid jumped in front of me and almost caused a pileup when I had to grab the brakes. But we survived and headed out onto PCH for lunch in the Plaza next to the Subway. After lunch we started back to the SART and I got a call from Highlander indicating he had his bike fixed and would meet us at the Honda Center. Coyote had us moving at a pretty good clip heading back towards the Honda Center as we caught and passed several groups. He said he was just trying to work off our lunches but we did get a chance to see some interesting bikes and trikes heading back.

I pulled for a short distance before giving up the lead to Surgeon and falling to the back of the line. I had no idea how fast Highlander might be closing in on the Honda Center so I told everyone to keep an eye out for him. I fell back again and Vortex, Levi and Nike rolled along and finally crossed back over the river and got us headed closer to the golf course and then the Big A again.

We were back on the north side of the river again and rolling along at about 20 mph and coming up fast on the Big A when we spotted Highlander heading almost as fast going west and passing us in the other direction. We shouted at him but I wasn’t sure he was going to stop and come back to ride with us. Coyote, Tax Man and I waited to see if he would return while the rest of the group headed on to the park. Finally Highlander turn around and we all got together to regroup at the park.

Highlander decided he needed more miles and Tax Man was feeling pretty strong so they headed back towards the beach while Coyote started back towards the parking lot. By the time the rest of the group was rolling Coyote was a long way ahead of us and I started the chase t see if we could close on him. We didn’t catch him till we were almost back to the 91 freeway underpass. But the time I was on his back wheel I was pretty much spent and Vortex, Surgeon and Levi past me and followed him back to the last bridge. From there on it was a quick ride back to the parking lot and the cars. Four of us stopped at the little restaurant for a cold drink before heading home and the prospect of a hot shower. It ended up being a fast cool 58 mile ride and a good day for it.